With bad news after bad news when it comes to consumer rights in relation to software and copyright, it's always refreshing to see that there are still people in high places who aren't yet bought by big content. Late last week, a major battle was won for consumer rights in Switzerland: Switzerland's Federal Supreme Court has ruled that IP addresses are personal information, and therefore, fall under the country's strict privacy laws, and may not be used by anti-piracy companies.

Swiss ISP have never been forced to reveal IP without a court decision. This isn't what the judgement is about.

What was happening is that Logistep was collecting IP of file-sharers. They then offered to the music/movies companies a list of IP downloading their copyrighted material. The music/movies companies could then use these IP to file a lawsuit and THEN, but only then and with a court approval, the ISP would be forced to reveal who is the person behind the IP.

So really, this judgement is just about the fact that collecting IP addresses on the internet WITHOUT the user consent is illegal in Switzerland.
Yeah, that has pretty wide consequences that go far beyond file-sharing.